This is a historic day, whether you voted to leave the EU or to remain.

This will be the last newsletter from me with Britain a member of the EU.  It feels very strange and slightly unreal to write that, and our departure from an organisation where I served for ten years as an MEP is heart-breaking.  But there are many challenges ahead of us, in particular the climate emergency, and the battle to stand up for the social and environmental standards that have been fought for by so many.

Citizens Assembly on climate

“When we are facing a catastrophic collapse in nature alongside the climate emergency, we desperately need an Environment Bill which will address the crisis.  Unfortunately, this isn't it.  

“An Environment Bill which actually weakens our current environmental protections is barely worthy of the name.  This Bill takes us backwards in so many areas.

We have a gem in Brighton.  The Hippodrome, a Grade II* listed building, is the most architecturally significant circus theatre in the country.  It's been empty and out of use since 2007 and is slowly, tragically falling to bits.  

I went to the RSPCA’s drop-in event at the House of Commons this week and met Chief Executive Chris Sherwood to hear about its Generation Kind campaign to teach compassion to new generations.

The RSPCA’s research revealed that nearly a quarter of secondary school children have witnessed animal cruelty and neglect on social media, either through posts or video, so Generation Kind is clearly needed.

Queen’s Speech and the need for a Green New Deal

Every day there is new evidence of the increasing scale of the climate emergency.

Yesterday the Met Office Hadley Centre said the wildfires still burning in Australia are "a sign of what would be normal conditions under a future warming world of 3C"

And new scientific analysis shows ocean temperatures have hit a record high as the rate of heating of our planet accelerates.

Yet despite this flood of irrefutable and overwhelming evidence, the UK continues to do far too little, far too late to cut greenhouse gas emissions from every sector of our economy.

We’re less than a month after an election campaign that saw an onslaught of misleading statements and a dramatic slide towards post-truth politics and public debate. 

We’re less than a month before the UK formally leaves the EU, even if nobody actually believes that Brexit will be “done” at that point.

This is my first newsletter of 2020 and I want to start by again thanking people for their support and giving me the honour of representing Brighton Pavilion in Parliament.  We face a very challenging year with our probable departure from the EU on January 31^st and the negotiations over our future relationship with the EU.  On top of that are the myriad of national and local issues that I know are so important to you: the NHS, school funding, housing, transport and of course the climate emergency.

Brexit & Parliament

There has been a break in my newsletter during the election period, and this is the last one of the year.  So I’m taking a look back at what has been a tumultuous year in politics, beginning with a series of unprecedented Government defeats in Parliament and ending with the first winter general election for nearly 100 years.  In between, we’ve seen the fall of a prime minister, the illegal suspension of Parliament and a deepening polarisation of our politics.